NO TRAILER CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
First, the Recap:
Venturing towards what recourse we have to resolve a given situation, especially a tedious and perilous one, is no easy task. Even upon choosing the option we feel most definitive about, it can still loom over us like a specter, challenging us and, in some instances, the forced societal conventions we might live under. In the face of this, do we proceed undaunted even when unknown or unexpected obstacles attempt to prevent us from taking action? Or do we fold under pressures that have been instilled within us for so long it doesn’t seem possible to escape? For Sarah (Zineb Oukach), a women’s rights activist already under heavy scrutiny in her home country has made an equally controversial, and illegal, decision that’s landed her on the radar of a relentless local police official (Mohamed Grayaâ) who may be battling his own personal crisis in the midst of it all.
Next, my Mind:
Let’s just be up front about it–the topic of abortion will always be a polarizing, highly-charged debate. Period. From the far extremes to those who might actually discover some kind of common ground in the middle, the decisions about the issue never cease to reverberate through our world, whether for good or ill. Yet, in spite of the inflammatory nature of it, this critic has found the independent film community excels at addresses such subject matters in a manner that holds deep impact and a completely humanizing degree of accessibility regardless of what your personal beliefs might be. Personally, this is what I felt when watching the 20-minute short film project from writer/director Zineb Oukach, executive producer Moez Kamoun, and associate producer Nadim Saadi that delivers a dramatically captivating, purposefully slow-burn, quietly intense statement about its chosen focus while surprisingly and deftly taking us BEYOND that core intent. The film qualified for the 2023 Oscars originally, and it is clear to see why.
Following a women’s rights activist and journalist who’s already under the local authority’s eerily clandestine but ever-present, watchful, (and discriminatorily judgmental!) eye now having to face a new mountain to climb when her plans to travel abroad for an abortion gets upended by a particularly explosive decision in the U.S. on June 24th, 2022, the narrative is brilliantly written and executed in such a manner as to effectively build the growing tension plus accompanying cat-and-mouse game being played out between two people–one innocently wary yet oblivious, the other consumed with bringing about “justice” according to custom AND law–WHILE they each have their own individual plights to contend with in decidedly unsettling and fully similar yet distinctly separate ways. Without giving the details away, which would completely ruin this study in baseline humanity vs. forced compliance, it is this ultimate exploration of conviction, heart, entrenched “duty”, and misguided “truths” that infuses the film with its provocative and NECESSARY aura, cementing the messages being conveyed in the viewer’s mind quite profoundly.
Additionally, it is this air of simmering volatility that also ends up making the film’s finale one to leave an incontrovertible mark, as there is imbued within us, at first, a sense of hope that compassion and unexpectedly revitalized, competent understanding has been reached, but then also doesn’t shy away from exposing the deep-seated realities of how far we have to go with all-encompassing gender equality. As mentioned above, the film is finds its primary objective through the abortion theme but offers an amassment of other key elements to unpack that are intertwined with it, including the shadow of seemingly inexpugnable patriarchy and the harsh, needless, destructively dogmatic mindsets it promotes, desperately sought after but still elusive or directly opposed freedoms and acknowledgements for women, privacy issues, living in an almost “Big Brother” culture, and MEN still making choices FOR women even when trying to believe they’re somehow being more “open” or have had their mentalities altered towards an existing matter of contention. It’s all here, displayed with a calculatingly cold dose of actuality and awareness-raising design.
Oukach brings a very proficiently skillful magnitude of intentionally conservative, subtle, but still actively emotive vigor to her role here as Sarah, a woman striving to make a dent (and a pronounced difference) in her country’s dominant, male-controlled world via activism and her associated journalistic efforts. But, also pursuing a specific outside yet related endeavor she’s aiming to accomplish, it subsequently gets squelched when a decisive change in policy where she was to travel to gets announced, forcing her to seek other avenues that could land her in even more trouble than she’s already garnered with the activities she’s involved with. Unknowingly being “hunted” by a local police detective bent on serving his Captain by exposing and arresting her, Sarah follows a dangerous path of CHOSEN necessity. It is such a low-key performance Oukach gives, but rightly and wonderfully so, for it perfectly suits the nature and atmosphere of the film’s cornerstone causes to a “T” and allows its narrative directions to speak through her character in a convincingly “loud” and apropos fashion throughout.
Grayaa delivers a genuinely haunting performance that so expertly captures a consistently fundamental air of complete ominousness paired with (brief!) moments of what COULD be construed as unpredictable soul and/or caring through his turn here as a coldly efficient, outwardly emotionless local police detective who has ONE person he’s wishing to ensnare, Sarah, a woman causing her fair share of upheaval in advocating for women’s rights in a society steeped in patriarchy. Following her like a indefatigable shark who’s detected blood in the water, he has his own unforeseen battle on the home front that ends up threatening to possibly change his perspective on that which he’s chasing, even after learning more about his quarry than already uncovered. But, whether what he learns throughout this process is an ACTUAL harbinger for said transformation or more just a new means to still enforce control over himself and all in his circle remains the question, and Grayaa’s ability to just make you hate, then MAYBE love, but then hate the character is an excellent testament to the actor’s performance and razor-sharp delivery.
There are several main supporting actors present here, playing Grayaa’s character’s doting but wearily frustrated wife, his hyper-critical and snarky police Captain, his no-nonsense, totally by-the-book female detective partner, Sarah’s driver, and Sarah’s contact in America named Leila, but unfortunately the absence of these individual’s names/characters in the film’s end credits prevent me from highlighting them as I would normally choose to do. But, I will absolutely state that each did an admirable job in their respective roles and so at least wished to let them all know they ARE appreciated and acknowledged by this critic for their performances here. So, in total, “Interruption” wears it’s formative thematic essence firmly on its sleeve while also making the decision to address the aforementioned underlying concepts as well, consummately coming together to present a sobering, evocative, and NEEDED portrait of them from a woman’s viewpoint, which is THE most irrevocably essential one required here and to be taken seriously. Period.
STAR RATING (out of 5):
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
